NOTES AND QUERIES. . 303 
by the consequence of man’s action, not a green blade of grass 
or a healthy tree is to be seen near these spots. 
O poor locust! why do they persecute thee for eating for thy 
daily wants, what man causes to perish from his thirst for gold? 
But, apart from this reverie, it would be very advantageous to us 
as a nation if all of us were a little better educated in the matter of 
insect life, and this little treatise seems to supply a real want. We 
have a chapter on burying beetles and their kin, the blow-fly and the 
flesh-fly, dor beetles, scavengers of the waters, “ Blight,” and its 
enemies, wood-boring beetles, and the work is illustrated with 
nearly seventy woodcuts. 
We feel sure that nothing will do more to stem the tide of 
atheism than the publication of small popular handbooks like these, 
_and when the young student has been brought face to face with all 
the minutize of insect life, the details of their structure and their 
various modes of living, we feel convinced he will never venture to 
suppose that all these well-ordered details are the result of accident, 
and then for ever he will believe the old text, ‘The fool hath said 
in his heart: there is no God.” 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
NOTICH.—As this Journal will be suspended for 
some time, after the issue of the December Number 
and Index, Subscribers are requested to pay their 
outstanding Subscriptions at their earliest conveni- 
ence to Messrs. Brook and Chrystal, 11, Market- 
street, Manchester. 
PRESENTATION.—At the last meeting of the Manchester Micros- 
copical Society, several microscopes were presented to the Society 
by various members. In all, the gift amounted to over forty 
pounds sterling. 
These microscopes are intended to be used at the ordinary 
monthly meetings, and to save members the trouble of bringing 
down their instruments when one is required for the purposes of 
demonstration. 
; LIVERPOOL MICROSCOPICAL SociETY.—At the December meet- 
ing of this Society, a paper was read by Mr. A. T. Smith, Jun., on 
